Powerless
by Jennalaia
Summary: What's so special about some powerless wizard? Erin wants to find out why she's unable to use magic, and she's going to shake the whole Spiral, take down a bad guy or two, and uncover the secrets to the most powerful beings in the Spiral since the Raven herself in the process. R&R, please!
1. Initiation Day

_Hey guys! Sorceress here. So I picked Wizard101 up again the other day and a few ideas popped into my head. I have no idea if I'll continue this side by side SAS, I guess it depends on the reviews and how many people enjoy it._

_Personally, I love Wizard101. I wrote a very amateur fanfiction for it a couple years ago, and this is partially me bringing back old characters. It was really Sue-heavy and the plot jumped around too much. I don't really like it much anymore, but the ideas... I think I'm going to bring some of those back._

_For example, Destiny Dawnriver was the original main character in it, titled "Descendant of the DawnRivers". In it, Kane was her eventual love, just like he is here. They're my canon couple. I think the only real difference is Jasmine and Sarai not being friends beforehand and Jasmine not being a Krokotopian immigrant._

_But yeah, Destiny was very Suish. Towards the end it turned out she was a goddess's counterpart (Serenity, the Elementalist) and defeated the real evil known as Eriat who was supposedly Malistaire's counterpart but was actually someone else's. There was a thaumaturge in there who was pulled over to Malistaire's side I think, it's been forever since I actually read it._

_Okay, enough with the rambling. Just trust me when I say you do __not__ want to read that. Just enjoy the fic you actually came to read, right?_

_Enjoy!_

* * *

Destiny Dawnriver brushed her hair out and slipped her shirt on. "Today's Initiation for the squirts, right?" she asked as she reached for her pants.

Destiny's boyfriend, Kane Moonshade, leaned on the wall outside her bedroom. He had come to pick her up, as he did every morning on something important. "Yeah," was all he said.

Destiny huffed, looping her tie. "I still can't believe Ambrose came up with that stupid older-student-new-student plan. I mean really, we've got more homework. We don't have time to look after squirts."

"I know," Kane sighed. They'd been over this already, several times, but it was good to let Des vent. She was always grumpy in the morning anyway.

Destiny slipped on her boots and reached for her beret, adjusting it as a skewed angle as always. "Besides, with all the rumors floating around..." She stepped out, fully dressed and equipped, worry in her eyes. "The rumor we heard in the Atheneum..."

Kane nodded seriously. "I know. And nobody's been able to prove or disprove it."

"It's the disprove part I'm worried about."

"Then stop worrying." Kane dropped an arm around Destiny's shoulder, holding her to him comfortingly. "Initiation's today. We'll get paired up with whoever, give 'em a tour, and they can fend for themselves."

Destiny rolled her eyes, grabbing her broom on the way out. "You're sympathetic."

"No more'n you. What was your plan? Fake sickness and not show up?" Kane laughed, a good-natured sound.

"Hey!" Destiny said, mocking offense. "That was a good plan compared to yours to abandon the Trackers and stick 'em on some other kid!"

"That totally would have worked!"

"It so wouldn't have!"

Kane laughed again, but suddenly cut off as his Tracker began to beep. "Aw, man," he muttered, drawing it out of his pocket and checking it. "Something came up, and if I don't take care of it now, I'm going to be late."

Destiny sighed. "Alright. I gotta practice broom-flying anyway. Your style of flying doesn't exactly work for me."

Kane grinned. "But it's such a good style..."

"I don't think crashing into everything in sight is considered a good style."

Kane rolled his eyes and kissed Destiny on the cheek. "This shouldn't take that long anyway. It just looks like the Atheneum was breached a little."

"Go take care of it, Kane." Destiny waved and watched her boyfriend's charming smile disappear in the mist that always came with teleporting. She sighed and sped down Firecat Alley. She needed speed to work off the weird feeling creeping its way up her spine.

Triton Avenue always had some great hills. She'd go there.

* * *

As Erin Soulstone stepped out of her house and onto the sidewalk of Triton Avenue for a breath of air, someone flashed past her on their broom, nearly running her over.

"OI!" she shouted. "Watch where you're going, huh!?"

The person slowed down, and Erin caught her breath. It was a pyromancer (they all had the same taste in colors for their clothes), and she was pretty. Her long blonde hair flowed down her back and spilled over her shoulders. She had big aqua eyes and an angelic face. She was obviously one of the top students everyone else strived to be; that much was obvious from her military-esque pink-and-yellow clothing, from the trenchcoat with a tie and the beret set at the slightest angle on her head. She was a Dragon, one of the elite few who managed to secure permission to investigate the current going-ons of the expelled Death Professor, Malistaire Drake. She sat up cockily on her broom and raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry I missed," she said coolly. "I was aiming for you, not the road."

Erin flushed angrily. "You shouldn't go around running people over, someone might summon thundersnakes on you!"

The girl looked her up and down, and Erin suddenly felt very self-conscious in her unisex uniform, though her mother had tailored hers to make it look at least a little aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Then the pyromancer looked back at Erin and smirked. "Right. You could summon a troll. Novice."

Erin flushed again, this time in embarrassment. She should've known that a Master student would be able to tell when a student was bluffing. Especially when they were bluffing about the fact that they had even completed one year of RavenwoodAcademy. Erin hadn't even seen Headmaster Ambrose in person yet. But school started today, and with luck she would be able to find out what her magical alignment even was.

The girl, obviously decided she was done with Erin, turned her broom around and shot away without getting into the regulation streamlined position. _How'd she even get a broom?_Erin thought as she ran back inside to grab her books, which she'd stupidly forgotten. It was her first day of school and she didn't want to be late.

"Erin!" her mom called, bustling in. "You're going to be late! Here, let me fix your hair-"

"My hair's fine, Mom!" Erin said hotly. Her mother was still treating her like a little girl even when she was thirteen, and she really didn't appreciate it. Erin swatted her mother's hands away from her bright red hair as she attempted to come near it with a wand. Having her hair magicked was just another reminder that Erin didn't have a drop of magic in her veins anyway. But the entire Soulstone family- Mom, Dad, Nathan, and Kaitlyn- all were Diviners, so they assumed that Erin was an underdeveloped Diviner. Underdeveloped wizards happened sometimes, but usually their powers emerged by five or six years of age. Poor Erin hadn't shown any magical power at all for thirteen years, and she wasn't expecting to start now.

Erin had lived on Triton Avenue with the other Diviner families all her life, but she could never shake the feeling that something felt wrong here. The air was always charged with electricity that made her feel on edge, the constant thunderstorms scared her when they were beloved by everyone else, and there was just a feeling on not belonging altogether. Her mother, father, sister and brother didn't understand at all. They loved Triton Avenue, said it was the place they really and truly loved. Erin cherished nights she slept over at friends' houses; anything to get off this road.

_Great,_ she thought as she picked up her Storm book and headed out the door to the Initiation Ceremony. _I'm going to be the first kid kicked out of Ravenwood because I can't do magic to save my life._

She quickly smoothed out her uniform- a simple blouse with matching pants, with a geometric shawl embroidered with a circle (which was secretly a pocket) and a strip of cloth hanging between the legs. There were plenty of variations on the uniform, but the Soulstones always outfitted their children in the Storm version.

Kaitlyn and Jonathan were waiting for their younger sister, but only because Mom had asked them to give her a tad of encouragement. They looked up as she walked out of the house, playing a game of toss-the-spark. They were twins, and looked it: they had the same brown hair (Kat kept hers in a ponytail and Jon let his grow out a bit so he could tie it back), the same bright blue eyes, and the same incredible talent for Storm magic. They'd been all over the Spiral, though they had not yet become Dragons, and Erin was pretty sure that was going to change any day now.

"Hey there, Er," Kat said with a fake grin. "Ready to take 'em on?"

"No," Erin said sullenly. "Don't bother giving me the pep talk Mom wrote out for you and go to school."

Jonathan's grin slipped off his face all too easily. "Fine, twerp, don't take our encouragement." Just like that, Kat and Jon were back to normal: pompous, annoying jerks who thought they were the greatest thing that graced the world since the Raven gave birth to Sola and the Six. Erin was absolutely sick of them flaunting their incredibleness everywhere they could, but seeing as they could simply snap their fingers and send rain pouring on her, she couldn't really do anything unless she wanted to get absolutely soaked. So she shrugged it off as they strolled away in their usual haughty manner and started running to the tunnel that led to OldeTown, passing a few trolls and cyclopes on her way. (Like almost every other street in the town, Cyclops Way had a monster problem.) She waved to the Guards on her way, hurrying through the Shopping District and into Wizard City Commons. She slowed down here, walking in the direction of Golem Way to fully register for the Initiation Ceremony before joining the crowd in UnicornPark.

Erin walked up the road, past the Fairegrounds, and through the tunnel to Golem Way as the GolemTower came into view. She frowned, remembering how the Golem family had recently disappeared and the Tower had been closed off. Something was clearly going amiss in WizardCity, and Headmaster Ambrose (who was pretty much the mayor as well) wasn't saying anything.

She shrugged and glanced to the right, fully expecting Mr. Lincoln, the Registrar pelican to be standing there. Instead it was Headmaster Ambrose himself, looking like Merlin as usual (poser) who almost NEVER came out in person, and his talking owl, Gamma.

"There's something amiss today," he muttered, not noticing me, pacing back and forth. "Something will go amiss and it will happen here."

Gamma fluttered in the air. "Are you sure, Ambrooooose?" he hooted.

"My Eyeglass is never wrong." It was only then that he noticed Erin, standing there awkwardly. "Oh, Miss Soulstone, why are you here?"

Erin blinked. "I came to register with Mr. Lincoln, but he doesn't seem to be here..."

Ambrose sighed. "Mr. Lincoln was waiting at Unicorn Way to register students quickly there. It would be best that you..." He trailed off and looked at the sky.

Erin looked up as well. It was darkening quickly, so quickly that only a very powerful Diviner could cloud the sky that quickly. And then it began to pour.

Or two Diviners could make that happen. "Come on guys!" she shouted. "You can come out, joke's on me, ha-ha! Jon, Kat, get out here already!"

No answer.

"Loooook!" Gamma hooted suddenly in alarm.

Erin looked at the ground and yelped. All the grass was dying as the rain fell upon it, all the stones were turning black at its touch.

"We should get inside," Ambrose muttered, facing the Tower. "I hope the golems moved out..." He gestured to her, pointed his staff at the door, and shot a bolt of light at it. There was a nearly inaudible click, and it swung open invitingly. Erin followed him and Gamma inside, but not before looking up.

Her heart leapt in her mouth. The shadow on the top floor was unmistakable.

* * *

Natalie Emberweave ran into Unicorn Way, past the two Dragons guarding the door.

Wait, two Dragons? She slowed down and looked. One of them was a pretty blonde pyromancer, the other was a necromancer with some style. She had light brown skin and surprisingly bright blue eyes. Her ragged black hair was pulled back into a ponytail. What the heck were Dragons doing guarding the tunnel?

The pyromancer noticed Natalie staring and snapped her fingers, sending a spark flashing in front of Natalie's eyes. "Oi, keep moving squirt," she said irritably. "Quit gawking and go get signed in."

Natalie stuck her tongue out. "Someone got on the wrong side of the bed this morning." She noticed the girl was sitting up on her broom, which was incredibly dangerous. The other girl was at least in regulation position.

"Get a move on," the pyromancer repeated, a bit more firmly. "You're going to hold up the line and the whole Initiation Ceremony."

Natalie looked around. She was pretty sure that unless Erin wasn't here, she was the last one in. And the Ceremony waited for no one; Headmaster Ambrose's announcement had made that clear when it had gone up on the announcement board two weeks before. She didn't want to cause too much trouble, though, or she would be branded a troublemaker and kept under close watch for the duration of the year.

"Sorry to cause trouble!" Natalie smiled and gave a wave, running off, snickering a little at the pyromancer's shell-shocked face. Obviously the fire Dragon had been expecting a snarky comment and not courtesy, even fake courtesy. She put the pyromancer out of her head as she signed the register book Mr. Lincoln was holding and joined the crowd in UnicornPark. All around her were the same worried faces she'd seen on her best friend's face- Erin Soulstone. The poor girl had been absolutely terrified of entering this crowd. She had said she was just scared of bumping into any Conjurors in the crowd, but Natalie knew better.

Natalie had known Erin since they were children. They'd grown up on different streets, sure (Erin on Triton Avenue and Natalie on Firecat Alley) but they'd always meet in OldeTown. Then, with a few gold pieces each in their pockets, they'd run down to the Fairegrounds and played on the merry-go-round and the different games for endless hours.

Of course, the early years were far behind them. Natalie frowned as she remembered how badly things had gone for WizardCity in the last year or so. After Professor Drake of Life had died and Professor Drake of Death had disappeared, monsters and the undead began escaping the dank, dirty streets set aside especially for them and began to storm the streets of the City. They seemed to culminate in the area where their magical alignment was most powerful, and it was causing a lot of trouble for the students. A lot of families were made of mixed alignments, but most were all purely one. The Emberweaves and the Soulstones were a good example. Many Diviner families stayed on Triton Avenue, just as many Pyromancer families stayed on Firecat Alley and Conjuror families lived on Cyclops Lane.

Recently, however, even these families were choosing to rent an apartment and give up their ancestral house on their street to avoid the dangers there. The Emberweaves weren't afraid of the fire elves that had started storming their street, but they were concerned for their youngest daughter. So Natalie had been signed up for a dormitory much like everyone else at Ravenwood. WizardCity had to be the most laughed-at World in the Spiral because they couldn't control a few monsters.

But as Natalie looked around her at the crowd, she noticed not all of the new students really looked like native Wizards. In fact, she was positive by that girl's pale skin, that boy's upturned eyes, and that girl's eye makeup that they were all transfers from the other Worlds of the Spiral. This wasn't new; there were always one or two transfers from each World because of Ravenwood's reputation and also simply because it was far cheaper than Pigswick Academy, but Natalie could easily pick out from where she was standing at least six from each World, and there were probably more.

She frowned. What were so many transfers doing at Ravenwood? They always tended to get a bad rap because they were foreigners, and also it was easier to go to the schools of magic in their own World, albeit less quality.

Natalie blew black hair out of green eyes. Her bangs were getting too long, and she needed to get a haircut soon. Unlike Erin, Natalie practiced magic each day by trying to style it each day without setting it on fire. She had succeeded in the last few years; the rest had been a little unluckier and often required a Diviner to help. But she preferred her hair in a short bob with bangs cut just above her eyes. She was a little tanner than pasty Erin, but they had the same green eyes, which was a little creepy. Erin had once asked Natalie if they could possibly be sisters. They dismissed this possibility two hours later after Natalie gave up trying to teach Erin how to hold a flame.

The crowd was getting a little restless. Where was Headmaster Ambrose? Where were the Professors? A few of them pointed to the sky and voiced their annoyance as it began getting cloudy and dark. Thunder rumbled and lightning lit up the clouds overhead.

Something moved in the cloud.

Natalie shot her head up and stared. She had clearly seen an indistinct shape for barely a second. Something was there, she knew. Something a little bigger than a human with wings.

More somethings moved in the cloud, that much was obvious from the next lightning flash. Shouts of fright rang through the crowd as the students jostled, looking for shelter from the rain that was beginning to pour down.

One of the girls in a Theurgist uniform screamed in pain. Then, one by one, other Theurgists joined her, writhing in pain. Meanwhile, the students in Necromancer uniforms appeared to be mostly unaffected.

Natalie looked up again, grunting in displeasure as raindrops fell on her. Pyromancers greatly disliked getting wet, and Natalie was no exception. Something was wrong with this rain. Ordinarily rain made Pyromancers scream in pain, but she and the others in her uniform were just fine. Only the Theurgists were being affected. She glanced down at the ground.

The grass was dying.

Now Natalie understood. "Get all the Theurgists in the gazebo, now!" she shouted, trying to gain control of the situation, but her voice was lost in the panic of the crowd. Sighing, she grabbed the first Theurgist she saw- the girl who first screamed- and dragged her to the gazebo.

The girl sighed in relief. Her brown hair, two locks tied to the front with golden beads, was plastered to her face and back. Her brown eyes were terrified, but relief slowly filled them as she realized she was out of the rain. "Thank you," she said breathlessly.

"Don't mention it," Natalie muttered. She waved to get the attention of another student, a Sorcerer. The girl nodded and shouted out to the crowd. Before long, the gazebo was tinged green as all the Theurgists huddled out of the rain and Natalie could turn her attention to the strange shapes in the clouds.

Her stomach dropped as the first one came into view and flew towards what she presumed was Golem Way. A second one followed it, and the rest, twenty strong, came flapping towards the students.

_How is that possible!?_ she thought, panicked. _They were all on Dragonspyre when it was destroyed!_

But here they were. Living, breathing legends. Hungry for blood.

_Draconians._

* * *

Ambrose snapped his fingers and the torches inside sprang to life. Erin blinked in the sudden glare.

"I'm sorry, Miss Soulstone. It seems you may miss the Initiation Ceremony," he said, looking at her. "The rain outside is not ordinary rain, nor is it safe."

"...Sir..." Erin said, looking terrified. "I-I saw a shadow on... the top floor..."

Ambrose frowned. "A shadow?"

"It looked like _him_."

Just like that, Ambrose's concerned face vanished into a mask of determination. "You wait here, Miss Soulstone. I will go investigate."

"You're going to leave me down here?" Erin said, sounding incredulous. "Sir, what if something happens to you!?"

"I can manage," Ambrose said, smiling grandfatherly-like. "I am, after all, the Headmaster of Ravenwood, and my first priority is the safety of the students. Wait here." As if the matter were resolved, he turned and started up the stairs.

Erin waited a few moments to ensure herself that had been what she had seen. She didn't want to believe that she had seen him.

The entire Spiral, she knew from her brother and sister, was in turmoil. Every economy was turned upside down as races rose against other races. The cat gangs in Marleybone, for example, had been acting up as of late. They'd even banded with the rats, who were ordinarily the cats' mortal enemies. That was really all Kat and Jon had told her, though. The rest, they said, was "top secret." They wouldn't say who was causing this trouble in all the Worlds or exactly what was going on.

But Erin thought she knew. Everyone knew, really, without being told. Not even Ravenwood, master school of coverups, could explain away a giant hole in the World where the DeathSchool used to be, especially just after the Death Professor had had a mental breakdown.

Everyone at Ravenwood knew the name Malistaire Drake.

He had been the Professor of Death until his wife, Sylvia Drake, died suddenly. The night of her death there had been the only earthquake to ever roll through WizardCity. By morning, the DeathSchool and its tree were gone, a huge gaping hold in their place, and so was Malistaire. It was rumored in WizardCity that he had been causing trouble in the rest of the Spiral, but the only outward notice of this had been the Dragons that were suddenly formed. They refused to say what their work was, but everyone knew it was to investigate where Malistaire had gone. He had taken some very important secrets with him, and his intent to cause chaos was obvious.

Erin was positive she had seen Malistaire on the top floor, and a few moments later, Ambrose's shout of the old Professor's name confirmed this. Erin shot up the stairs.

A minute later, she slipped through the open door. Malistaire in his black-and-gold cloak stood on the other side of the room, clutching an ash staff with a Draconian perched on top of it. He had become gaunter than when Erin had last seen him, and his mustache and goatee had become longer too. His hairline had receded a little more, but other than that and his new pasty complexion he looked very much the same as he did six months ago when his wife had died and he had vanished into the night.

Ambrose hadn't noticed her yet. "You are no longer welcome here!" he growled. "Why have you returned?"

Malistaire sneered. "I'm here to resolve our unfinished _business!_" He gestured to Erin with his staff. "Is that your latest student?"

Ambrose turned, noticing the girl for the first time. "I told you to stay downstairs!"

"Sir, with all due respect, I'm not sure you should be alone with him!" Erin shot back.

Malistaire rolled his eyes. "My henchmen will see to that annoying brat." He snapped his fingers and two draconians burst through the ceiling. Erin screamed in surprise. Two creatures of legend were settling into the ground right in front of her. Before Ambrose could make a move to protect her, the first draconian flew towards Erin.

Erin screamed again and scrambled to the side as the draconian bounced off the doors and rebounded towards her. She tripped and the monster flew over her.

She heard another screech and rolled away as the second draconian ripped up the floor where she had just been. Leaping to her feet, she rushed to the other side of the room in a panic, grabbing a random book off one of the shelves that lined the walls and throwing it. It bounced off the draconian's snout and it snorted in surprise. That didn't stop the second one from shooting forward and throwing Erin into the wall. She cried out in pain and hit the ground.

She heard growling behind her and rolled again, but not fast enough. She felt her uniform rip as the draconian tried to dig its claws into her back. It nearly succeeded as she felt her back explode in pain. Erin yelped and shot a leg out to the side on instinct. It hit something hard. The something grunted, and then cold claws clasped around her boot and she yelped again.

The draconian heaved Erin into the wall, and she blacked out for a moment. When she came to, the first thing she saw were small, stiff rectangles of shiny colored parchment.

"Use those!" Ambrose grunted, throwing Malistaire off him with his staff. The old man was tiring quickly.

Erin snatched up the parchment and ran as fast as she could, and not a moment too soon. The first draconian crashed into the wall behind her where she lay just a second before and the other one was getting ready to spring. She scrabbled for the temporary wand that her family had bought her at the cheap shop- emergency purposes only, they had said, and this definitely qualified as an emergency to her- and shakily glanced at the cards. The colors told her that two were Fire spells and one was Myth... she swore. _Myth!?_ It didn't matter, to her these were as useless as paper anyway. All she could do was keep running, so she did.

Ambrose glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "What are you doing, child!?" he shouted. "Use the spells!"

"I can't!" Erin yelled, too focused on running for her life to explain any more. Grabbing another book, she turned on her heel and threw it like a frisbee. Her fragile luck held and it hit one of the draconians in the eye. It squealed in anger and bumped into the second one blindly, enabling Erin to gain a safe distance and finally reach the doors.

Locked.

Erin swore again and kept running.

She crashed straight into something black. Malistaire turned around and growled. "You idiots! I told you to take care of this brat!" he yelled to the draconians. He turned away from Ambrose and faced me, eyes glowing. "You, child. Remove yourself from this place." Without another word he clicked his fingers and suddenly Erin felt sharp claws wrap around her shoulders.

"NO!" Ambrose yelled as Erin was lifted into the air, kicking and screaming, through the jagged hole in the roof of the Tower and into the pouring rain.

"Let go of me!" Erin yelled, squirming in the draconian's grip. The draconian ignored the girl and instead flew over WizardCity, cutting over Ravenwood. Erin swore she saw her brother and sister look up through Bartleby's branches, but it was difficult to see through his leaves.

She stopped looking down as the draconian flapped higher, seemingly flying towards a large, dark red cloud.

Erin did a double-take. _Wait, that's not a cloud. Clouds don't have that many wings... gods, they're all draconians!_ She looked down on Unicorn way and her heart skipped a beat.

_What's going on!? What are they doing!?_ She squirmed again. A girl shouted down below. Someone else screamed.

The draconian chose that time to fulfill Erin's request.

* * *

Kane aimed at another draconian with his sword and jumped back. "Outta the way!" he shouted, focusing and summoning his phoenix, Fira. He pointed her in the right direction and the flaming bird attacked the draconian her master had summoned. His fellow Dragons scattered to avoid the flaming trails Fira left.

"Everyone back!" his friend, Andrew, yelled, his sword glowing gold with pent-up mana. Every Dragon recognized what he was about to do and stood back, most still firing spell after spell at the oncoming draconians.

Andrew swung his sword towards the draconians and jumped back himself as his orthrus, dubbed Fluffy, clawed its way out of the ground at the light of the summoning moon. The two-headed hound growled and howled before attacking four of the draconians, two of them falling to the ground, coughing and hacking as they dissolved into husks.

Kane fired off another burst of fire. The draconians had never, _never_ invaded the Atheneum before. He didn't even think it was possible, with all the seals on the doors that only a wizard could open. But they were here alright, and they had to be pushed back before they could reach the Basilica, the hub for the World. It led to everywhere else in the World, which would cause serious problems for the Necropolis and the Academy.

"Hold them back, I'm calling for backup!" he shouted. The other five Dragons shouted their acknowledgment, and Kane backed out of the fight and quickly honed in on Destiny and Jasmine. _Guys? Are you there?_

Jasmine's panicked shout came back to him. _Yeah we're here- ah! You finished in the Atheneum yet?_

_Yeah, we could really use your help about now!_ Destiny yelled.

Kane reeled in surprise at the sounds he heard in the background: fighting, growling, screeching, screaming. _What's going on there!? I thought you two were overseeing the Initiation Ceremony?_

_We were, until a freaking huge cloud of draconians decided to show their faces!_ Destiny shouted. Kane heard her cry out in pain. _There's like twenty here or something, probably more on the ground and definitely more in the sky. They're scaring the crap out of the squirts._

_Not to mention there's way too much for two of us to handle,_ Jasmine added. _Kane, please. We need backup now._

_Er,_ Kane muttered glancing behind him at the other Dragons. _We're sort of in a pickle ourself, but we'll get there as soon as we can._

_What kind of pickle is more serious than what's supposed to be a mythical creature attacking new students who can't defend themselves?_ Jasmine demanded.

_The Atheneum was breached, we're barely holding back draconians ourselves, _Kane admitted.

_Something weird is going on,_ Destiny cut in. _Why have they never tried breaching now? And why are there SO MANY OF THESE THINGS?_

Kane felt a chill run up his spine_. Malistaire was planning something according to our intel, remember? Something big. I think this is his plan going off without a hitch._

_Then we have to put a hitch in i- Destiny, your left, YOUR LEFT!_ Jasmine yelled.

_Thank you!_ Destiny yelled back. There was the sound of something screeching of pain. Then Destiny muttered, _Wait, what's tha- oh gods. No. No, no, no._

_What? _Kane and Jasmine asked at the same time. Then Jasmine said incredulously_, Is that a girl being held by a draconian?_

_No, that's a girl that's falling through the air and going to DIE!_ Destiny shouted. _Kane, take care of the Atheneum and get here ASAP!_ The soft humming in the background ceased suddenly, and Kane knew Destiny and Jasmine had cut him off.

He frowned. What could Malistaire be planning? He was obviously trying to throw Wizard City into a panic so he could do whatever he wanted undetected, but what was it he was trying to do? And why target the new students? _Probably to send a message,_ he reasoned. _Look what I can do to your children and you can't stop me._

"KANE! WE COULD REALLY USE MAX HERE!" Elana screamed.

Kane snapped back to reality. Right, there were draconians trying to get in. He turned on his heel and sprinted back to the fight, holding his sword out to one side, calling Max the helephant to his side as he ran.

* * *

Natalie swiped another draconian with her wand, but they kept coming. Where were all the faculty!? Any adults? Anyone? No. Everywhere she looked, there were draconians attacking new students who could barely defend themselves. She was sure that very few of them actually knew magic, and watching the majority of the other students heave rocks at the draconians confirmed that.

Luckily, the Emberweaves believed in training early and did so at home. Natalie could barely summon a firecat yet, but a quick burst of flames was easy enough. Unfortunately, a quick glance at the small blue crystal ball on her belt was enough to confirm that she didn't have enough mana to keep this up for long. They were getting outnumbered and they were getting beaten back fast.

Natalie threw a rueful glance at the Theurgists cowering in the gazebo. _If they could come out, they could give us a winning edge, but this rain...!_

It didn't take an idiot to realize the storm had come from a Necromancer. It explained the grass dying, the flowers wilting, the tree's leaves falling, the Theurgists crying out in pain. But no ordinary Necromancer could have summoned a storm this powerful, this big, so quickly. And she didn't know any Necromancers who could summon- and control a horde of living legends either.

Out of the corner of her eye she spied the two Dragons from earlier in the thick of the fight, but they couldn't do much with the panicking students everywhere, preventing them from summoning anything big that would completely turn the fight around. Instead they were firing bursts of fire and black light at any draconian around them, using their weapons to their full extent. Occasionally the jerk pyromancer would summon a sunbird that flew from the sky and took a flying swoop at a draconian to cause more damage. Sometimes the necromancer girl would call a bigheaded vampire to cause more damage herself. They were slowly but steadily cutting through the draconians as they shriveled into withered husks, but they weren't cutting through fast enough. It was too little too late.

Two more draconians flew overhead, probably the two that had flown away before. Natalie spared a fleeting glance at the two, and then spared a bit more than a glance.

One of them had a student grasped in their claws. It was a girl, she could tell that even when she was that high up. Besides, someone could easily tell from the long red hair that was bright even in the storm. And they were a Diviner, which was pretty obvious from the choice of purple-yellow uniform.

Something clicked. Red hair. Someone absent. Wearing a Storm uniform.

"ERIN!" Natalie yelled.

The first Theurgist Natalie had rescued screamed as one of the draconians swiped at the gazebo, ripping out one of the support beams.

And Erin fell.

Natalie's heart stopped. Immediately all she could think about was reaching Erin and stopping her before she made a sickening crack against the yellow stone or- no the way she was falling it was obvious she was going to be impaled on the unicorn statue's horn-

Coherent thought became impossible as Natalie scrambled over draconian and student alike, sending bursts of flame at anything that blocked her view, eyes on the rapidly descending scrap of red hair. "ERIN!" she screamed again.

She pushed past the jerk pyromancer, who seemed to be going in the same direction. "Do you know this girl?" she yelled, pointing at the sky. Natalie barely managed a nod, a small flame of hope igniting somewhere. Maybe a Dragon could help save her friend. She was sure a Dragon could save her friend.

Destiny bit her lip. The only one who would be strong enough to easily carry the girl to safety was Bella, but there was no way she could summon the monstrous beast in time, nor was there enough room to summon her. "I'm sorry," she yelled, taking another swipe at a draconian. "I'm sorry."

Natalie froze up. This girl would do nothing. Yet she was sure that the girl could do something. But she chose to do nothing, instead fighting for her own life instead of saving someone else's. Selfish. So, so selfish.

Natalie's pulse roared in her ears. Nothing, she could do nothing to stop her best friend from childhood from dying, either from impalement or impact trauma. Memories flashed in front of her eyes faster than she could make sense of them.

A purple-yellow blur shot out of nowhere, though Natalie would later realize it was from somewhere in the crowd as someone had managed to summon their broom. Erin was ripped from her fall seconds before hitting the unicorn horn as the person shot down the avenue, unable to stop apparently.

Natalie could have cried in relief, but she didn't. Instead, she faced the draconians. There were more that were asking to have their rear handed to them.

* * *

_Read and review!_

_Edit: Sorry about the nonexisting POV breaks, I've fixed that now._


	2. Library Labyrinth

Erin screamed as she fell. Below her she could see students shouting and hurling rocks at what she had believed to be mythical beasts. For a split second she was sure she could see the pyromancer that had pissed her off in the morning, but she was sure that was just a trick of the eyes.

_So this is how I'm going to die,_ she thought, glancing below her. _Speared on top of a unicorn's horn. How heroic._

Every wizard going to Ravenwood Academy knew magic was dangerous. They knew the world was dangerous. They knew their powers were dangerous. Erin had seen Natalie, more than once, set her once-brown hair on fire. Eventually she'd just had her mother magically change it to black so nobody could see the scorch marks when she burned it trying to magically style it in the morning.

But despite the risk factor, every student going to Ravenwood Academy dreamed of someday becoming a hero in their own right, traveling across the Spiral (only students that had completed one semester were granted permission) and saving Worlds from the brink of destruction.

Of course, these were all just dreams. Most students' parents feared for their child's safety and took them out of school as soon as they could control their powers. There weren't a lot that let their children travel to other Worlds.

All of these thoughts shot through Erin's head, almost like she was falling in slow motion towards the unicorn's horn. She ruefully thought of how sharp it was kept.

_I am going to die,_ she thought. She closed her eyes.

And then something rammed into her side.

Erin shouted in surprise as someone's arm wrapped around her waist and her vertical fall was instantly interrupted as whoever had caught her shot across in a completely different direction. Erin winced as a sharp pain, like an electric shock, spread through her body. That's weird, she thought.

Then she noticed that instead of flying, the person seemed to be trying to take an emergency landing. Whatever they had been flying on suddenly disappeared as the person wrapped their other arm around Erin and they both hit the ground rolling. Erin and the mystery person grunted in pain until they slowed to a stop.

"Ow," the person muttered, enough for Erin to confirm it was a guy. "Ugh. You alright?"

"Let go of me," Erin snapped, trying to push the guy off. "You're stinging me."

"Yeah, you're welcome for just having your life saved!" the guy shot back. "I can't move anyway, you've got my arms pinned beneath you."

Erin sighed and pushed again, this time rolling over. As her vision slowly sharpened and she shook her hair out of her eyes, she got a good look at her rescuer. To her surprise, it was a boy not much older than she, wearing a Storm uniform. He had messy black hair and sharp green eyes, like her. Those eyes were currently filled with annoyance as he separated his hands behind her back and pushed on her shoulders. "Off. You're stinging me too."

"Sorry," she muttered, rolling off him. Her legs felt weak as the adrenaline slowly drained out of them and her anger drained away too as relief took its place. "Thanks for saving my life. Sorry I snapped at you."

"No problem," the boy replied. "It's alright, that was a bumpy landing."

"Yeah, nice going."

"Not my fault. I think it's this stupid Death rain that canceled out the spell that gave the broom life. I'm lucky it got off the ground out all." The boy climbed to his feet and held out a hand.

"I'm alive, therefore I don't care if I get hurt afterwards." Erin took his hand and shakily got to her feet, wincing again as she felt that stinging pain. The boy winced too, and she guessed he was feeling it too. She looked out at the scene of student versus draconian. "What... what's going on?"

The boy gave her an odd look. "What do you mean? Weren't you here?"

Erin glanced at her feet. "I got... turned around."

The boy looked at her for a moment and then chuckled. "You thought Mr. Lincoln was in Golem Way, didn't you?"

"Shut up. What happened?"

The boy's face darkened. "It started raining and then... draconians just ... showed out of nowhere. They attacked all the students. And the theurgists can't help us because of this Death rain."

Erin tilted her head to the sky. "Malistaire," she muttered under her breath.

The boy looked at Erin, shocked. "What did you just...?"

Erin dismissed his question with a wave, drawing her all-but-useless wand. "I'm sure the Headmaster will tell everyone later. If not, I'll tell you. Right now we need to do what we can."

The boy drew his own wand, looking scared yet brave at the same time. "Right. Let's go then."

As the two charged towards the tangled mass of wings and jaws and wands and students, the boy glanced to the side. "By the way, I'm Justin."

"Erin."

"Pleasure."

With that, they entered the fight.

* * *

Destiny fired off another burst of flame when another student bumped into her. "Oi, watch where you're..." she started, turning to see who it was. To her surprise, it was the girl she'd made fun of just that morning and the one who'd just been rescued.

"Can't you do anything bigger than a stupid ball of fire, Dragon?" the girl snapped back. "We can't exactly hold them back!"

Destiny was about to snap at the girl to do something about it herself when she noticed her hands, both tightly wrapped around her wand, so tight her knuckles were white. The girl was scared, and by the look on her face she wasn't sure the wand could do anything.

"Well?" the girl said, glaring at Destiny. "Can't you do something bigger than a stupid ball of fire?" She whacked a draconian with her wand. The creature snorted and shied back for a moment.

"Yeah," Destiny said, flourishing her sword after a moment. "Yeah, I can. Get everyone out of the park or out of harm's way." She glanced over at Jasmine, who was holding her own. "Jazz!" she shouted, calling her friend's attention. "Scaredragon time! Do you have enough mana for Jack?"

Jasmine looked up from hitting a draconian with her sword. "Barely!" she called. "I need time."

"Five minutes?"

"Perfect."

Destiny looked back at the red-haired girl, who was banging draconians with her wand in an effort to keep them away from her. "Get as many out of here as possible," she said. "You've got five minutes."

The redhead nodded and disappeared into the crowd. A moment later, Destiny spotted her with a black-haired girl in a pink-and-yellow pyromancer uniform starting to herd students towards the bridges that led to the street. Good, she thought.

The soft touch to her back was enough to confirm that Jasmine had made her way to her friend. If anything, the young necromancer seemed even stronger in this rain. Of course she is, Destiny told herself. This rain was obviously cast by a necromancer, so naturally another necromancer would be strengthened in it. What troubled the Fire Dragon was the monstrous power of the necromancer needed to cast such a storm. Everyone knew the only type of wizards strong enough to gather moisture in the air to cause rain were diviners, and even for them it was a difficult task.

A chill ran up Destiny's spine. _Not him, not him..._ she shook her head. If she thought such things, she would give in to despair, which was the last thing they needed right now. "The center!" she shouted, which was all Jasmine needed to hear. Slowly, as one, they moved to the center, which would be the best place to summon Jack and Bella.

Destiny glanced around. The number of students was definitely far fewer than it had been, but only a couple of minutes had passed. So the two Dragons held their ground and fought off the draconians for all it was worth.

* * *

Natalie pushed her sopping-wet hair out of her eyes, herding another few students towards the edge. "Why are we doing this again?" she asked, glancing over at Erin.

Erin looked like she could barely see through the strands of hair that had plastered themselves onto her face. "Because those two Dragons are going to do something that'll hopefully get rid of these in one shot?"

"Sounds good. Yeah, keep moving, it's alright." Natalie winced at all the wounds she was seeing. Newly-bought robes of comfortable material were torn and bloodied. There were claw and teeth marks on arms, legs, shoulders, and faces. One poor kid was limping and had to be held up by another student. Another had been knocked unconscious and was being carried by two. There were a few with arms dangling at unnatural angles.

Erin looked away, looking slightly green. "Ugh... how could this happen?"

Natalie put a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "I don't know. This was supposed to be a good day. This was supposed to be the start of school." She looked around. "Where's the Headmaster, anyway? This would be just the kind of thing that Ambrose wouldn't let go unnoticed."

Erin seemed to stiffen under Natalie's hand. "He's... busy."

Natalie turned and took a good look at Erin. The girl looked scared, but it was more than that. Her eyes... Natalie took a good look at her eyes. Erin was hiding something, she was sure of it.

But Natalie wasn't one to push matters too far. So she turned and went back to herding students. There were still too many fighting for their lives, the black-haired boy that had saved Erin's life among them. The theurgists were watching carefully from the gazebo, calling and waving every time there was a more seriously injured student that came out of the crowd, which there luckily weren't too many of. Most of the students were scratched badly, and some were bleeding, but it wasn't too severe.

A couple more minutes passed. Natalie estimated they had about half a minute before the Dragons unleashed whatever they were going to unleash, and there were still many students in the crowd. She pushed the panic quickly rising in her throat back down. It wouldn't help if she lost it. _Erin, where's Erin?_ she wondered, looking around, but her friend had vanished. A moment later, Natalie caught sight of her friend's sopping wet hair pushing through the crowd, pushing other students behind her.

Natalie understood immediately, but that didn't mean she approved. "Erin, you idiot!" she yelled as she pulled students out of the crowd as fast as she could. Within a few moments, almost every student was out of the fray, the only ones left being Erin and the black-haired boy.

"Time's up!" the Fire Dragon yelled, kicking a draconian away and lifting her sword. Her friend did the same, pointing her own sword at the sky.

"Erin!" Natalie yelled, panicked, as the Fire girl's sword began glowing red and the Death girl's sword glowed black. A roar shook the skies while a tremor shook the ground. The students yelled in fright and held onto each other, trying not to fall over. Natalie grabbed a tree to stay steady, losing sight of Erin and the boy in the fray of draconians, thought it was easy to guess their locations by the thick crowd of the beasts seemingly centered over one area.

"Look!" the brown-haired theurgist screamed, pointing at the sky. Natalie whirled and her jaw dropped as a magnificent dark red-and-yellow dragon soared into view. _A real dragon,_ she thought._ A REAL DRAGON._ A real dragon that was nearly forty feet long with a long swinging tail, piercing orange eyes that made Natalie feel hot just looking into them, with a dark red hide and shimmering red scales that were beautiful yet harder than the strongest armor, nearly impossible to pierce. It had a pale yellow underbelly that looked softer than the rest of it, but still difficult to pierce. It had razor-sharp yellow claws jutting out from its somehow elegant feet. It was, judging from the slim structure and smaller yellow crests over the eyes, a female.

"Bella, go!" the Fire Dragon shouted. "Everything with wings!" She glanced towards the crowd of draconians and slashed her sword in that direction. Two bursts of red light exploded from her sword and flew into the crowd just as Bella the dragon flew overhead, opening her mouth and breathing flame over the entirety of Unicorn Park. Natalie screamed as the heat wave rolled off the flames. Even as a pyromancer, it was difficult to bear. The other students yelled in terror and ducked.

The draconians screeched as many of them exploded into dust, but some of the more Fire-oriented ones managed to withstand the flames. Those were the dark red ones, Natalie noted. Most of the other draconians had died writhing in pain as they burned alive, dissolving or exploding into dust and leaving nothing else behind.

The Fire Dragon waved at the real dragon as it flew out of sight, disappearing into the clouds. Natalie gaped. _She summoned that thing!?_ she thought. _I knew the Order of the Dragon had powerful members, but how did she tame a real dragon!?_ It struck her for the first time that the pyromancer seemed familiar in a way. In fact, Natalie was certain she'd seen the pyromancer's face somewhere before.

The ground shook again, the tremor greater than before. Natalie's heart leapt in her mouth. That was just the Fire Dragon, she thought as the blood drained from her face. What's that necromancer hiding up her sleeve?

* * *

Justin was having a rotten day.

First he'd gotten up later than usual, on _today_ of all days, because the family's piggle had accidentally pushed his alarm charm off his night stand and under the bed, where it wouldn't work because it was activated by the morning sun's rays. By the time his sister, Alia, had finally woken him up and informed him he had to get to school before she had left for her month abroad in Krokotopia. It wasn't fair. She was _barely_ a year older than him, and she already got to go to Krokotopia. She even got her own _house_ on Colossus Boulevard!

Justin had dressed quickly and flown out the door on his brand new broomstick, his gift for starting the magical portion of his studies. Sure, everyone got essential studies in the first several years of their life, mostly at home, but magical studies didn't begin until students were thirteen, when they were considered mature enough to handle magic properly. This was the start of his life as a wizard, he'd been thinking as he left the house and habitually zoomed around on Triton Avenue a few times, avoiding the monsters that had been cropping up as of late.

When he realized the time, he'd flown like mad to the tunnel leading to Olde Town. Justin lived on the far side of the street, close to Four Falls Mill, so he'd broken an unspoken rule on the street and shot through the Mill's waters, enjoying the cool refreshing feeling of Storm water flowing over him. He'd dried quickly as he flew, obviously, pushing the broom to its top speed.

When Justin got out of bed that morning, he hadn't been expecting mythical beasts to be flying down and attacking students when he finally arrived to Initiation. He hadn't been expecting to see a darker, more sinister storm than the one on Triton Avenue. And he definitely hadn't been expecting to save a girl from falling to her death.

_Things do not always go as planned,_ Justin noted as he cowered underneath the shield the pyromancer girl had conjured just in time to shield both him and his rescuee, Erin, from being fried by the giant dragon that had just flown overhead.

Erin was still gaping. "Did you see that?" she whispered incredulously. "A dragon. How in the name of Zizon did she tame a dragon?"

"She_ is_ a Dragon," Justin said simply as the battered shields clattered to the ground and poofed into nonexistence before their eyes. He stood up. "At least we're not in as much danger..."

He looked around. Nearly three-quarters of the draconians had been wiped out, which was majorly impressive. Only the strongest ones remained, and they had been weakened.

Unfortunately, it looked like the Fire Dragon was also weakened. Her hands were on her knees and she was breathing heavily, dripping with sweat. And those other draconians were looking at Erin and Justin like they were a snack.

Erin held up her wand, which Justin had noticed she used mainly as a club. "Back off," she warned, sounding not at all intimidating.

And then the ground shook harder.

Justin yelped as the ground cracked underneath his feet. He jumped out of the way, grabbing the back of Erin's robes without thinking and pulling her with him, wincing as sparks wrapped around his hand. _What is with this girl?_ he thought. _She's wearing the Storm uniform, so you'd think..._

But he didn't have time to think right now. Erin cried out in surprise and stumbled, falling to the ground next to Justin as black roots slithered out of the widening crack. Justin stared in amazement as a pumpkin-headed scarecrow slowly rose out of the crack, twisted as it went. The level of creepiness only rose as three or four crows flapped out of the ground, cawing.

Then the scarecrow looked up directly at the boy. Its eyes began to glow and Justin got a horrible feeling of hopelessness...

"Jack!" the necromancer shouted. The scarecrow looked away, and the feeling vanished. "Not the students! Kill the draconians, alright?"

The scarecrow stared at the Death Dragon for several long moments before giving her the slightest of nods and turned its gaze on a nearby draconian instead. The creature whimpered in fear and then stiffened as a blue light was sucked out of its body and stored in the scarecrow's pumpkin head. It fell to the ground in a withered husk before dissolving to dust and blowing away in the wind.

Justin gaped as the scarecrow did the same to each and every draconian that was left, until the only evidence that the beasts had ever been in Unicorn Park were piles of dark dust, which was blowing away quickly. Then the scarecrow turned towards the necromancer, head brimming with blue light, but she shook her head and pointed towards the students huddled on the edges of the park.

The scarecrow gave its slight nod again and turned towards the students. They all backed in fear of the strange summon brimming with blue power. It was unfamiliar. Justin noticed Erin's fist clenching, just a bit.

Then the scarecrow exhaled the blue light all over the students. When the light cleared, Justin noticed a lot of them were partly healed. Those who could barely walk before were able to stand with support. The students with a few scratches were healed completely. It was mass healing on a scale Justin had never witnessed in his life.

Only he and Erin were unchanged, but that was probably because they hadn't been in the crowd of students. No matter, he thought. Neither of us is really badly hurt anyway. He had a few scratches and Erin had a nasty claw mark on her shoulder, but that was it.

Then he really looked at Erin. The girl was white with fear. Now that he thought about it, he should've been shaking with terror as well. Everyone except the two Dragons should have been, really. Why weren't they? Was it because they had magic? He'd noted Erin hadn't even performed any magic while she was fighting for her life. Not knowing what else to do, he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder and winced. She hurt to touch, and apparently he did too, because she almost immediately shrugged his hand off.

The Fire Dragon was the first to speak after sheathing her sword. "Everyone... alright?" she panted. "Nobody's... dead, are they?"

"Yeah," the Death Dragon said, sheathing her sword as well. "Raise your hand if you're dead."

No hands were raised.

"Okay, good," the necromancer noted. She snapped her fingers and, with a poof of smoke, mounted her broom that answered her summon. "I'll go inform Ambrose about what happened here. Des, you go find the faculty and do the same once you're up to it. All of you," she said, pointing to the mass of novices, "have the theurgists to the best they can do, then come to the Fairegrounds. We should have a few more experienced theurgists ready by then." She paused, as if thinking. "Anyone know where Ambrose would be if he's not in his home?"

"Golem Tower," Erin said suddenly. "He's in Golem Tower."

The necromancer stared at her for a moment, and then nodded. "I see." With that, she turned and streaked out of Unicorn Way.

The students immediately broke into nervous chatter. Justin guessed from the general babble they were discussing what just happened. A few students at a time slipped underneath the gazebo to get fixed up a little by the theurgists.

One girl, a black-haired one in a Fire uniform, tackled Erin from behind. "Erin! Erin are you okay?" she cried.

"I'm fine, Nat," Erin muttered. "Get off me. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just scratched. How'd you know Ambrose was in Golem Tower, anyway?"

"I just... did," Erin said quietly.

"Nat" nodded and released Erin, apparently taking that for an answer. Her gaze settled on Justin. "Who're you?"

"Justin Skystrider," Justin replied, tilting his hat. "Also known as the guy who saved Erin's life."

"Natalie Emberweave," Natalie replied. "Erin's best friend."

"Can you stop talking about me like I'm not here?" Erin grumbled, gripping her shoulder. "I need to go find Ambrose."

Natalie looked at Erin, a concerned expression on her face. "You need to stay and get that shoulder treate-"

"He might be dead!" Erin interrupted.

Justin stared. "Just how did you end up falling from the sky?"

Erin looked away. At that moment, Ambrose entered Unicorn Way and, sure enough, made a beeline for Erin, the Death Dragon trailing after him.

"Miss Soulstone!" he said. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alive," Erin said, shrugging. "That's good, right?"

Ambrose nodded. "Miss Darkhaven told me exactly what happened here."

"Miss Darkhaven?" Justin said in confusion.

The necromancer girl waved. "Jasmine Darkhaven, second-class Dragon."

"This is a grave matter, Miss Darkhaven," Ambrose muttered, apparently forgetting the existence of the students for a moment. "It's going to be a bit difficult explaining 'mythical' creatures suddenly appearing and attacking the students."

"Sir, Base A was also breached today," Jasmine said, casting a glance at the three standing nearby. "I recently received a message from a comrade saying the Dragons on guard there pushed them back, about the time you say he escaped."

"Wait," Erin interrupted. "Malistaire got away?"

Justin and Natalie gasped.

Ambrose glared. "Miss Soulstone, I would implore you not to speak any further on matters you do not understand."

Erin just stood there, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow. Justin could see she wasn't happy about that. "Fine," she said after a moment. "But Headmaster, I nearly died today. I think I would at least deserve an explanation why!"

Ambrose sighed. "Come into my office later when everything has settled down, and I will answer your questions."

Jasmine's brown complexion paled. "Sir, are you sure..."

"Yes," Ambrose snapped. "Now, all of you, to the Fairegrounds. I'm sure the theurgists would like to take a look at your wounds."

Justin looked up. When had the rain stopped?

* * *

Destiny collapsed in the Headmaster's Tower. She had to rest or she was going to pass out.

Destiny had a bad habit of overdoing things. The usual Scaredragon tactic she used with Jasmine was weakening the enemies with Bella and then finishing them off with Jack, but Des had gone overboard more than once and incinerated them all before Jazz could leech the health out of them with Jack. Using so much power to summon Bella transferred all that power to the she-dragon, effectively overpowering her until she left. And throwing two Fire shields to cover those two brats that had stuck around immediately after Bella had been called? Give me a break, she thought, resting on the couch and closing her eyes.

A flutter of wings told her Gamma had flown in. The owl softly hooted for a moment, and Destiny held up a hand. She heard the click of Gamma's talons closing around his perch, and the room was silent again save the soft tinkling of the incredible Spiral Map in the middle of the room.

She lay there for a good while, enjoying the silence, the soft tinkling almost lulling her to sleep, when it occurred to her that she hadn't yet contacted Kane about what had gone down in the Atheneum. She honed in on him immediately. _Kane? Are you alright?_

After a few moments of nerve-wracking silence, Kane's voice echoed back to her in her mind. _Yeah Des, I'm fine. Are you?_

Relief flooded through Destiny. Kane was okay. _Oh gods Kane, today's been_ insane, she moaned. _I overdid it with Bella again and some girl dropped from the sky and all the students are hurt in some way or another and-_

_Calm down,_ Kane interrupted. _I got the report from Jasmine and figured I should let you know something weird._

_Control yourself, idiot,_ Destiny told herself. _You have a job to do right now._ She turned her attention back to Kane._ Something weird?_

_As soon as you killed all the draconians, all the ones in the Atheneum turned tail and fled back into the Plaza of Conquests and the Tower Archives. It was weird. Think it might have to do with Malistaire fleeing Golem Tower about the same time, but-_

_WHAT!?_ Destiny yelled, sitting up in surprise. _Malistaire was in Golem Tower!?_

_Yeah,_ Kane replied. _You didn't know that? Ambrose filled me in._

_Ugh. No wonder. I've been hiding in his Tower for a while to regain some strength. Did I mention I overdid it on Bella?_ Destiny stood up and stretched. _I feel better now though._

She could almost hear Kane shaking his head. _One of these days you're going to kill yourself if you can't control your power output... how did you manage to be a top Dragon this way?_

Destiny smirked as she walked outside, blinking in the glare of the sun. _Magic, duh. Listen, I've got a potential witness that might be able to help us out. Talk to you later?_

_Wait, a witness?_ Kane sounded mystified.

_Bye!_ Destiny cut off the connection on her end and summoned her broom, speeding off. "Now then," she murmured, "where's brat redhead?"

* * *

Erin twisted her shoulder experimentally. "It's great," she said to the theurgist standing in front of her. "Thanks."

"That's what we learned it for," the theurgist smiled, waving Erin away as the next student in line came forward. Erin walked out of the Fairegrounds and almost made a beeline for Ambrose's home.

She stopped short of his door. I should go check on Nat and Kat, she thought, but then she shook it off. She could already imagine their replies to her story, or more or less what their reaction would be. Nathan would make a stupid remark and ask her why she felt the need to attract attention by making up such a ridiculous story, and then Kat would ask if she had an inferiority complex to her amazing older brother and sister. Nat would probably make a comment about respecting your elders, then the two would high-five and laugh.

Erin decided against looking for them. _They'd probably ask me why such a pitiful girl like me would need to check on incredible amazing siblings like them anyway,_ she thought hotly. _Stuck-up jerks._

So she walked up the stairs and pushed the door open, finding Ambrose swamped with concerned parents who were all shouting for attention at the same time. Erin quickly gathered that they all wanted to know why their children's expensive uniforms were torn up and why their children's blood was spilling.

"If you could all just calm down," Ambrose kept protested. "Yes, I understand you're very upset... they're all being cared for now... the school will supply a new uniform for the ruined one... we're extremely sorry, this was not supposed to happen..."

Erin just sat on a pile of books in the corner and waited until the adults finally cleared out, most of them grumbling and unhappy with Ambrose's answers. Ambrose beckoned Erin into his Tower, and Erin followed.

The Tower was beautiful. It was dark and cut off from the outside world, save the doors leading into the main room and sunlight streaming in from the other door leading out. A few candles burned in strategic places. Tomes that looked far older than any of the others Erin had seen were neatly arranged in bookshelves while another ancient book sat on a lectern. Gamma snoozed quietly on a perch. A red couch molded smoothly into the curved wall on the other side. A carpet quieted the sound.

But the most incredible thing was the Map.

Erin gaped at the strangely shaped crystal that revolved at an angle in the dead center of the room, high above her head. The iridescent crystal seemed like it had been pinched in at the center. Just underneath it, several tiny miniatures of the Worlds slowly revolved around a larger miniature of Wizard City, which was centered directly under the crystal. Just as it was in pictures, here was the multicolored Spiral laid out before her. Erin could easily pick out the Worlds she knew, and here and there were Worlds she didn't recognize, including one mysterious world that seemed to recede out of view as soon as she tried to look at it.

"This is my greatest treasure," Ambrose murmured, "out of many. The Spiral Map. I assume you've read about it?"

"It's beautiful," Erin whispered, gazing at the Map in wonder.

"And helpful," Ambrose said, gesturing to the crystal on top with his staff. "That crystal is one of many, placed high in the very center of each World. It's almost like a tracking device, tracking the World's position in the Spiral and instantly relaying that information back to this crystal here." He chuckled. "This was Grandmother Raven's greatest gift to her brother, Bartleby, the Grandfather Tree."

Erin nodded; the legend of Grandmother Raven was well known throughout the Spiral.

"Now, then, Miss Soulstone, take a seat," Ambrose said, gesturing to the red couch. Erin took a seat as Ambrose began to pace back and forth.

"I am assuming you wish to know what Malistaire was doing in Golem Tower today. While I cannot tell you the specific reason, I can tell you it was because he came back for someone, or something. Which, I'm not sure. It's extremely unfortunate that you got caught in the situation, seeing as I did tell you beforehand to stay downstairs, but I do believe that if it were not for your intervening, Malistaire would have set his two draconian henchmen on me instead and I would have been in a much more difficult situation than before, and for that, I thank you. However, you did get into a life-threatening situation, and I imagine your parents will not be happy with me that I allowed you to get into that situation. So unfortunately there will be consequences for your actions..."

Erin slumped back. She wasn't getting any more information than she had had before, and all that was going to happen here was her receiving punishment. She had practically saved Ambrose's life, and here he was punishing her for it? It wasn't fair. She was almost sure that if her brother or sister or even best friend had done the same thing, they would have been praised and received some sort of reward. Once again, she blamed her situation on her inability to perform magic.

Erin stood up abruptly. "If all you're going to do is read me the riot act for helping save your life, I'm not interested." Ignoring Ambrose's angry protests, she pushed open the door and left.

The Fire Dragon was outside waiting for her. "So this is where you were hiding." She grabbed Erin's hand. "Let's go have a little chat, shall we?"

Natalie slipped a fresh tunic on. Luckily she had a few more changes of uniform, so those would do until the school provided the Emberweaves with the one that got destroyed. But since Initiation had been moved to tomorrow, there was no point in changing into a fresh uniform now.

Uninterested in walking from Firecat Alley to the Commons, Natalie ran and borrowed a public broom from the nearby stable and lazily flew back to the Commons. As expected, Unicorn Way had been barricaded off, and students weren't allowed inside.

* * *

_Hmm,_ Natalie mused, _what to do now?_

Half an hour ago, Natalie had been sent away from the Fairegrounds after being healed up fairly well. Erin had disappeared, and so had the two Dragons. Well, sort of. Natalie had spotted the necromancer flying in and out of the Dark Cave near Natalie's house, so she guessed the girl was patrolling. But the Fire Dragon was nowhere to be found. So Natalie had decided to go home and change, and then figure out what to do next.

Hmm, Natalie thought, looking around. I have no gold, so there's no point in the Shopping District. I'm not powerful enough to be allowed tours to Grizzleheim, and I've been on all the other streets in Olde Town a dozen times. Mom and Dad probably won't let me take Zeus out of the house to train him in the Pet Derby... then her eyes lighted upon the library. Why not? she thought, and sped towards there.

All the buildings in Wizard City followed a strict no-mount policy, so Natalie left the rental broom out in one of the broom racks, giving it the command to stay. Then she went inside.

The Wizard City Library was nothing to sneeze at. The books were impeccably organized by the top-class system, a combination of pulleys, platforms, and magic. Natalie looked around, watching as the intricate pulley-platform system sped all around the library, sometimes going up and down, but the books on the platform always floated off at exactly the right level for a library aide to read out and shelve it or for the book to float itself off to the correct shelf. No detail, no matter how small, was overlooked. The head librarian had the privilege of being connected through magic into the network, so Harold Argleston always knew when there was a book missing. Add to that the several extensive entrances to the Library Labyrinth, and you had one pretty awesome library on your hands.

Natalie offered a friendly wave to Boris Tallstaff, the head library aide. Boris stared back, expressionless as usual, and Natalie withdrew her wave. Boris had a reputation for being indifferent and always grunting about being busy when in reality all he did was stand next to the main desk and look important.

Natalie shrugged. She was here to look up a legend, not get annoyed with Boring Boris. So she slipped into the lefthand aisle, knowing that it led to the legends section. Unlike most of the students in Wizard City, Natalie was a frequent visitor to the library and knew its secrets.

Like all labyrinths, this one was easy to navigate if you knew how it worked. It also helped, of course, that Natalie had been visiting since she was a young age and explored on her own, and since had made a map with the shortest routes to her favorite places mapped out clearly and color-coded. Of course, Natalie had memorized the routes long ago, so her feet took her around this corner, past this bookshelf, this much further past this landmark, and soon she was in the cozy legends corner: a secluded corner, lined by bookshelves (obviously) and the floor was littered with big soft cushions to just fall down onto and start reading.

Ordinarily, Natalie would select a random book off the shelf and start reading it, whether it was an old favorite or new fodder. However, today was definitely not ordinary, and she definitely wasn't here for leisure.

Natalie hummed a little tune to herself as she ran her fingers over the spines of the somehow dust-free books, searching for the D's. After a few moments, she pulled out the book she was looking for. Just to confirm it, she flipped open to the index and scanned.

A moment later, she sat down and began to read _The Draconians._

* * *

_Tada! Chapter two! These might come faster or slower, since school starts next week. I think I like this and I'm enjoying writing these._

_In response to the ONLY review I've gotten so far: Thanks!_

_UPDATE: Once again, redid the POV changes. I hope._


	3. Paige

"So, to recap," Destiny said, pacing back and forth, "You saw Malistaire in the tower and he said something about unfinished business? And then he summoned a couple draconians through the roof, you ran around the room like a wuss-"

"I am not a wuss!" Erin protested.

"-until you got picked up and almost died by unicorn horn," Destiny concluded. "Is that about right?"

Erin settled back in the chair and folded her arms. "You make me sound like a wimp," she grumbled. Destiny had dragged her into her dusty dorm room after they traded names. Erin had suffered through an unpleasant ride on the back of Destiny's broom (or rather, had to suffer through Destiny's haphazard steering) before finally making it to the relative safety of her dorm room.

Erin cast a dubious glance around. All that remained in the room other than dust were the regulatory bed and desk. Sure there were a couple chairs, and a pot or two, but other than that the place was barren of creature comforts. And judging by the thick layer of dust that was coating everything in the room, Destiny didn't even live here anymore. It had just been convenient.

"In my eyes, Miss not-really-a-diviner, you _are_ a wimp," Destiny snorted. "Now get out of my room."

Erin stood up stiffly, not letting on how hurt she was by that jab at her nonexistent powers. "Nothing would please me more," she snarled. She practically ripped the door open and stomped out of the dusty room.

Ignoring all the stares she was getting, Erin angrily left Ravenwood's campus. The novice class had been informed the Initiation Ceremony would be held the next day, and until then they should just rest and make sure they paid a visit to the Fairegrounds. Erin was supposed to head home, but she didn't feel like putting up with Kat and Nat's most-definitely-relentless teasing, and she didn't want to settle down in the library like she usually did with Nat (that was assuming she could find Nat, anyway). Erin wanted to move.

So she ran.

She ran all the way through the shopping district to Olde Town, ignoring the path further down to her street, Triton Avenue, picking instead to fly down the tunnel to Cyclops Lane. Her spirits lifted as soon as she stepped out onto the forbidden street. The Soulstones specifically forbade their children from stepping foot onto Cyclops Lane, at least until they had to go onto it. But she didn't understand why; it was so calm and peaceful here, and she felt her unsubstantial powers rise in strength whenever she stepped foot onto the street. It was filled with so much Myth magic that any diviner should have crumpled up, but she didn't. And it was so bright and airy here. The bright yellow-blue patterns of stone on the ground looked cheerful, the cyclops statues at every corner were beautiful, and the park in the middle of the street was just so fun to spend some time in. Even if there was nothing to do. There were still streams and a huge open green space. Erin easily could have spent hours there.

But she had only come for the park today. Avoiding the monsters that stalked the road, Erin used the sidewalk to get to the park quickly. Once there, she stretched out on a hill by the stream. The sky was bright blue, with streaks of white clouds smeared across it, like pretty mistakes on a blue canvas. Erin sighed in relief.

"Hey, you're in my spot," a girl's voice said. Erin sat up and turned to see a tan girl about her age, with soft blue eyes and brown hair tied back in a messy ponytail. She wore a conjuror uniform and an amused expression.

"Sorry," Erin said sheepishly, scooting over. "Will you share?"

"Don't see why not," the girl replied, sitting down next to Erin. "You here for the view, diviner? Or are you just in it for the pain?" She grinned.

Erin scowled. "I'm not in any pain, I'm very comfortable here."

"A diviner comfortable in the most Myth-oriented place in Wizard City. You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah." Erin lay back again. "It doesn't bother me like the rest of my family. I'm different."

"Aren't we all." The girl also lay back, and the two were quiet for some time. "I'm Lily Mythmender."

"Erin Soulstone."

"Nice to meet you. Hey, aren't you the one that nearly got stabbed by the unicorn statue?"

Erin closed her eyes and sighed hotly. "No?"

"Yes you are." Lily looked at Erin concernedly. "You're not traumatized or anything, are you?"

"I'm fine," Erin replied. "You're the first that's actually worried and not laughing at me for nearly dying by unicorn."

Lily giggled. "I'm not saying it's sort of funny..."

"I know, I know. Thanks anyway." Erin shrugged. "I'll be the laughingstock of Ravenwood soon, so why not start now?"

"Laughingstock how?" Lily looked confused.

"I have zero power," Erin explained. "Not a drop in the metaphorical bucket. None. I can't even zap anyone." She closed her eyes and waited for the usual laugh and tease.

"That's odd," Lily said, pursing her lips. "Maybe that's why Cyclops Lane doesn't affect you as it would a normal diviner. Cause your power's suppressed or something? Or maybe you're underdeveloped, which would be logical. Or, ooh, ooh! Maybe you're one of those rare cases that was born without magic!"

Erin sat up and stared. "No, no, I was tested. I have magic, I just can't use it." This girl completely confused her.

Lily sat up as well. "Hmm... I know! Let's ask Paige!" She climbed to her feet and offered Erin a hand.

Erin cautiously took it, a bit surprised that Lily didn't sting her like she was supposed to. "Who's Paige?"

"She's a Dragon who lives alone on Cyclops," Lily explained, helping Erin to her feet. "She's my best friend, but she's like the total opposite of your case. Her powers are super strong, and she can see people's auras."

Erin blinked. "She's a Dragon?"

"Yeah, but she's a total anomaly. Like, her magic is classified as Myth, but she uses it as her secondary school and only when she has to fight. She's more of an intelligence person and not a fighting person, but even though she's just a year older than us the Order was totally begging her to join them, so she said yes but right now she's on her street, she probably slept in because she knew what was going to happen and was unable to stop it, so she just didn't do anything. Anyway she's really nice and I bet she'll be able to tell what's up with your powers, so let's go!" Lily tugged on Erin's hand and Erin follows her as she ran up the road.

Erin was dumbfounded. Lily was unlike anyone she ever met. She could talk a mile a minute, and was the first person that didn't laugh at her situation. (Well, second. Natalie never laughed.) And who was this Paige person?

_Guess I'll found out,_ she decided, and ran faster to catch up with puppy-like Lily.

* * *

Jasmine stopped her broom and slipped off it, sitting down on the sidewalk. She was sick of patrolling and wanted to take a break. She didn't really care if Brooke complained about it, really. Dragon or not, Jasmine was still fourteen, and frankly, fifteen-year-old Brooke would just have to deal with her 'subordinate' taking a ten-minute break.

_Such a dictator,_ Jasmine thought, tilting her head to Firecat Alley's red-orange sky. _Honestly, she's got such a big stick shoved up her ass._ Not that Jasmine really blamed her. As the youngest commander in the Order, she had a lot of pressure on her shoulders. So her division had gotten used to frantic orders and being worked to the bone.

Nonetheless, Jazz would take the risk of being caught off guard and relaxed a bit. It was a nice day, now that Malorn and the rest of the high-level necromancer students had dispelled that disgusting cloud of Death.

Jasmine frowned. She'd already worked out the storm had mostly been a cover, but it was also obviously there to enhance the caster's power, which it probably had. Malistaire, no doubt, had summoned the storm. He got stronger, she thought. Much stronger. She remembered, this time last year, when Malistaire had joked with her that she might become the strongest necromancer in the Spiral one day. "Only when I'm gone," he had said, chuckling. He'd been so happy.

Then, just three months until the school year ended, Sylvia had died.

Jasmine had never really liked Sylvia, or any of the theurgists in the school for that matter. She always thought they were goody-goody kids who were weak and were only used because of their special healing talents. Sure, a lot of the other schools could heal themselves to some degree (Death excelled in this in particular) but only theurgists could heal by huge amounts.

Sylvia was nice enough, she supposed. She was in tune with nature, very kind and gentle, a stereotypical theurgist. It hadn't really made too much difference to Jasmine when she died, except that obvious sadness people get when they discover someone they knew was dead.

But Malistaire had been devastated when Sylvia died. He was furious for some reason and argued with his brother, Cyrus Drake, a lot that night.

The next morning, there was a huge hole where the Death School used to be and Malistaire was nowhere to be found.

Just barely a month after the incident, the Order of the Dragon was formed. Jasmine and her best friend Destiny were some of the first candidates, which was no surprise. Both were at the top of their class.

"E-excuse me," a voice said, startling Jasmine out of her reverie. She looked up.

It was the brown-haired theurgist, the one that Fire girl had saved first. Jasmine almost immediately recoiled slightly out of instinct.

"A-are you J-Jasmine Darkhaven?" the girl stammered, obviously nervous. "I have a m-message from Destiny D-dawnriver."

Jasmine perked up and stood up, leaning coolly on her broom. "What's Des want?" she asked calmly.

"Sh-she said f-for you to m-meet in the Headmaster's T-tower," the girl managed to say.

"Oh. Thanks. Guess that means I'm free from patrolling duty." Jasmine calmly mounted her broom. She had no qualms about leaving this girl behind.

"Um, h-hey," the girl stammered. "Uh... th-that scarecrow thing y-you did was really c-cool. It saved e-everyone. So, uh..." She looked down at her boots. "Th-thanks."

Jasmine looked over her shoulder at the theurgist, going pink. Had she really just received praise from a random student? A theurgist, no less, saying Jack had been cool. "It was nothing," she replied. "Just doing my duty and keeping everyone safe." She looked the theurgist over, noting her hand was bandaged and she had a couple bandaids on her face. _That rain must have hurt them all more than I thought,_ she realized. _Probably just the air, too._ "See you around, I guess?" she shrugged.  
The girl looked surprised and nodded, a bit eagerly. "Yeah, see you around. I'm Sarai Summerglade."

"Nice to meet you Sarai." Jasmine meant it. She waved a friendly goodbye, thinking of how pretty Sarai was when she was smiling and not looking at the ground, and flew off towards the Commons.

* * *

Kane stopped at the top of the long, winding ramp and dismounted his broom. He reached for his keyring, feeling for the proper Key to fit into the Gate.

Leesha had finally decided she had grilled them enough and let them go. _Probably she let us go early because I mentioned Ambrose was waiting for me to go and fill him in,_ he reflected. _Goody two-shoes._

The Ashleafs really were quite tough on those below, but Kane had known Leesha and her sister for a while before the Order of the Dragon had been formed. She was good, and unlike her sister, she didn't let her power go to her head. Tough but fair. Everyone in her division respected her. Sure, she had her off days, but Kane had a girlfriend. Those few days a month he could easily understand and tolerate.

The pyromancer grinned as he found the right Key and held it up in the dim light of the World, admiring it for a moment. Every Spiral Key had the same basic design; it looked like an average skeleton key, gleaming gold, with teeth delicately shaped into two letters that told the user which World it would unlock. WC, KT, MB, and MS were the ones that were usually given to students studying abroad. Kane, like everyone else, had heard rumors of a solitary Key that unlocked a whole other universe, but he had dismissed that as a rumor long ago.

Shaking out of his admiration of the beautiful Key, Kane inserted it into the lock of the Spiral Gate and turned. There was a click. Kane removed the key, slipping it back onto his keyring, and opened the door, mounting the broom again. The Wizard City Spiral Chamber- the innards of Bartleby, known as the Inner Sanctum- laid on the other side. Kane flew through and the door closed behind, the window offering flickering images of other Worlds just beyond.

Kane waved to a few of the students milling around in the Sanctum. The Chamber was a popular place for theurgists, especially older ones on history projects. Often there were small groups of students in green clothing huddled around a picture carved into the walls, discussing what it was and what it could possibly mean. Answers always varied.

Kane wasn't interested in weird wall carvings today, however. Instead, he flew out of Bartleby and did a quick flyaround of the school, taking in the damage. None of the buildings, it seemed, were damaged, save a few scratched walls and a few broken windows. Most of the professors and Malorn seemed calm and collected, though several of them couldn't hide the fear in their eyes. Professor Balstrom was quite obviously distressed, hopping about in his school building and muttering to himself, jumping in surprise (literally) whenever anyone came near.

And then came the matter of the students themselves. Many of them sported injuries, and though the older students that were used to danger acted like they weren't scared, Kane could see fear flickering in their eyes. He couldn't blame them; after all, most thought that draconians were mythical creatures. Their beliefs had just been trashed a couple hours ago, and the higher-ups in the Order were seriously concerned. If one belief was trashed, what about the rest of them? The entire Order of the Dragon relied on everyone believing what they were told. If not, the whole operation came crashing around their ears.

After patrolling the grounds a few minutes, Kane turned and started flying towards the tunnel, dodging students left and right. Destiny made fun of his flying style, but he wasn't used to flying around on a broomstick. It didn't come easily to him, and the broom had a mind of its own and it didn't always agree with Kane. Kane was in fact suspicious it had murderous intentions.

Nonetheless, Kane managed to reach the Commons without incident. There were a lot fewer students than usual milling around, but Kane had been expecting that. He did another quick patrol (trying to control his bucking broom, which seemed intent on throwing him into the lake) to confirm that the Commons had been virtually untouched. There were only two broken windows in the area, which seemed strange. Malistaire had been trying to cause destruction, or at least distraction. He'd have to ask Ambrose for his opinion.

So Kane steered his broom towards the Tower, where he dismounted and tied the broom quickly to one of the harnesses outside. _**"Stay,"**_ he said firmly, his voice layered with magic. The broom bucked sullenly and pulled on its harness but grudgingly obeyed. Kane sighed and walked in.

Ambrose was there, staring up at the Spiral Map in concern. He quickly looked down when Kane entered. Kane glanced up at the Map, but he could see nothing out of place. He saluted the headmaster instead. "Sir."

"At ease," Ambrose muttered, gesturing to the couch. Kane sat down. "Honestly, it's only you and those Ashleaf sisters that do that."

"I know, sir."

Ambrose sighed and leaned on his staff. "It's of little importance. What happened in the Atheneum, Mister Moonshade?"

Kane took a breath. "Well, there was a signal this morning that there was a problem in the Atheneum, so everyone who was assigned there today went to check it out. That was me, Andrew, Elana, Amber, Thomas, and Chris. We all figured it was just one or two that had figured out they could fly over the walls, but the doors to the Archives and Plaza were wide open and a whole ton of draconians were spilling out-"

"I thought the doors were charmed to keep those monsters in," Ambrose interrupted.

"They are," Kane agreed. "Chris checked them after they all went back. The doors' enchantments had somehow been removed. Anyway, the six of us split into two groups- me, Andrew, and Elana and Amber, Thomas, and Chris- and each took on one of the floods. We managed to hold them back from getting into the Basilica, thank gods. And it seemed as soon as Malistaire disappeared from here, they all turned tail and flew back into their respective areas. It was really weird."

Ambrose took all this information in. Then he paced around the room, muttering under his breath for a few minutes. Then he turned back to Kane. "Good job on protecting the Basilica. It seems that at the moment, that's low on Malistaire's priorities."

Kane blinked. "Really?"

Ambrose nodded. "Yes. Malistaire was trying to keep everyone in specific areas for a purpose. That's why the Commons are barely touched, but Ravenwood is trashed and draconians attacked the new students. That would occupy the teachers and the new students. And he himself kept me occupied in Golem Tower while you and your unit were busy battling draconians."

Realization dawned. "...He was trying to distract us from something else."

Ambrose nodded gravely. "Yes. And I have a suspicion of what that something else might be."

* * *

Justin strolled down the Avenue. Sigh. Now he had nothing to do, with that exciting portion of the day over and done with. Sure, he hadn't really expected to see mythical creatures explode out of the sky and start attacking students, nor had he expected to save a diviner-but-not-really girl, but after the excitement of the morning, the rest of the afternoon seemed... dull.

He sighed and sat along the edge of the path leading from Upper Triton Avenue to Lower Triton Avenue. A rope extended over the edge of the stout stone wall, stretched down the cliff, and disappeared into the river below. Recently, Justin knew, there had been explorations down to the riverbed where a sunken part of Triton Avenue lay. Rumors floated around that there was an entire civilization made up of crabs down there, but Justin was smart. He knew there was nothing to those rumors.

Still... he flopped down on the grass and stared up at the cloud-covered sky. He loved the sky on Triton Avenue. Let everywhere else be bright and sunny, he would have his endless thunder and lighting and occasional downpour which often induced quite a few Avenue residents running out and holding impromptu dances. All the other wizard classes thought Triton Avenue was gloomy and forbidding; he thought it was perfect. The bright stone of the buildings everywhere else in Wizard City was almost painful to the eyes; Triton Avenue's muted colors were soft on the vision. It was a good place to have a stroll.

Sounds of fighting drifted up to him. He looked around for the source, surprised when it came from the Pavilion of Lightning. It was the place some of the older wizards went to once in a while to pray. He didn't expect to hear noises such as yelling, sparking, and fizzling coming from that holy spot. He couldn't see too well from where he was, but he could see something large and purple, and a multitude of other beings in purple robes. Diviners, he guessed, as he sprinted down the steps, across the bridge, and into the teleportal.

The mill man looked surprised as Justin ran past him. "What are you-" But Justin was already gone, fading into view in the Pavilion. He shook off the lightheaded feeling that always came when one used any type of teleportal, and then looked up.

His jaw dropped. The purple-robed beings were older wizards, many of which Justin knew by name. They were firing spark after spark at... Justin rubbed his eyes to ensure he was seeing things properly. Yes, there was the kraken that was known to have made the Storm-filled river on Triton Avenue its home up on the Pavilion, roaring and summoning lightning bolts from the sky to hurl at the wizards. A few were just managing to cast shields that shattered at the first blow, but it was close.

Not that it seemed to be doing much damage. Justin knew that diviners already had natural resistance to their own brand of magic, and he recognized some of the robes the others were wearing as ones that were enchanted to help repel the very same magic. But he was only wearing silken school robes, and he knew that silk was a very good conductor. He needed to get out of there.

One of the older wizards, Penelope, a girl with flyaway purple hair, noticed him. "Justin, get out of here!" she shouted, as if voicing his thoughts. Then she shrieked as a lightning bolt hit her. She staggered, but she didn't fall.

The kraken had noticed him. It let loose a ragged, guttural roar and the lightning increased threefold. The wizards yelled and scattered as strike after strike hit the precious stone pavilion, ripping loose large chunks of the limestone.

Justin's heart tugged. The holy place that had been here for centuries was being destroyed. Without thinking, he drew his wand.

The kraken laughed. "You challenge me, boy?" it growled, the words so garbled Justin could barely understand a word it was saying. Clearly it was unused to speaking human. Justin almost wanted to laugh.

"Die."

Okay, that was nothing to laugh at. Justin rolled out of the way as a lightning bolt struck the spot he had been standing in a few seconds ago. He rolled quickly to his feet, blasting the kraken with a meager spark. It didn't do any damage at all.

By now Penelope and Tyler, another wizard, were on their feet. "Justin, run!" Ty yelled. "Just go!"

"But-"

"No buts! Get yours out of here!" Tyler opened his arms to the sky, and lightning obediently hurtled from the sky and attacked the kraken, who roared in rage.

Drew ran to Justin and pushed him into the portal. "We'll be fine!" she shouted, worry clear in her eyes. Justin watched her form dissolve and the mill appear before him.

Before the mill man could even speak, Justin rushed to the edge of the cliff and watched in disbelief as the teleportal's space crashed onto the teleportal. He could hear the tempered glass shatter from all the way up there and winced, praying Drew, Penelope, Tyler, and the others all could get out with their lives.

_Well, you wanted something to happen,_ he thought grimly. _Look what did._

* * *

Paige's home wasn't hard to find.

Erin and Lily stared at the burned and blackened house. Glass littered the road and broken glass balanced precariously in the windows, sharp triangles that gleamed in the light. The door was hanging from the upper hinge and the lower half had been ripped away by a monstrous force and lay in the center of the road some thirty yards away. What little they could see of the entry hall was still smoldering and smoking.

"...Oh my gods, Paige, PAIGE!" Lily shouted, shooting forward.

Erin grabbed her flailing arm and held the girl back. "What if whatever did that is still in there?" she shouted.

Lily was openly starting to cry. "What if Paige is still in there!? What's going to happen to her? She's my best friend!" She squirmed in Erin's grip a little more. "PAIGE!"

"You won't do much good if you're so crazed!" Erin snapped. "Calm down!" She pulled Lily into a hug.

Lily buried herself into Erin's arms, sobbing. Erin couldn't do much other than stroke the girl's head and speak in a soothing voice. "It'll be okay, don't worry..."

Except she didn't know if it was going to be okay. She didn't know if Paige (whoever she was) was alive or dead or even in the house. All she could do was try to calm down Lily.

After several minutes Lily was calm. She wiped her tears and faced the house. "...Should we?"

"No other way to find out, right?"

Lily nodded and led the way into the house.

The entry hall was the only black room. As Erin and Lily tread through the house, avoiding the glass littered on the carpet, they could see that there had been fighting going on. Scorch marks blasted into the wallpaper were still smoking. The couch had been ripped, and the thick white filling spilled like congealed blood from a wound. Books, scrolls, and parchment were thrown helter-skelter here and there, and the shelf that they had originally come from was in pieces all over the floor. A few crystal balls were shattered. Erin saw a few reddish-brown smears that looked suspiciously like blood and turned Lily away before she could see.

Erin was sickened. What was going on? This street was supposed to be her haven, her peaceful place. What had happened in this house? And where was this girl that Lily was so worried about?

"I don't see her," Lily said worriedly, jolting Erin out of her thoughts. "I don't see her. Do you see her? I don't see her. I know she's here, I can feel it. I just can't see her. Do you see her? I don't."

"You talk a lot when you're nervous," Erin said.

"I do because I'm scared. This kind of silence is really scary and I want to fill it with words. It's less scary that way." Lily jumped around a corner and held her wand out, like she was expecting some sort of monster to be in there. Erin realized that the girl really was terrified. She was pretty sure Lily didn't even know how to use magic. She was acting brave, and she put on a good act, but she couldn't hide the fact that her knees were trembling, even if she was wearing a dress.

"We'll find her," she said encouragingly, putting a hand on Lily's shoulder. "She has to be here. If not, we can just Whisper to her."

Lily nodded and pressed on.

The two slowly explored the house until they had cleared the first floor. Lily led the way up the carpeted stairs, the two girls jumping over glass and stomping out small flickers of fire as they went. They didn't even have to open the door; there was a hole burned into it. They ducked through and explored the halls.

There was more glass and smoking scorch marks strewn across the floor. A few of the doors were broken in, others were wide open with more suspicious reddish-brown smears inside the room.

There was only one door that was slightly ajar. "That's Paige's study," Lily whispered. "It's where she does most of her work and keeps her stuff."

Erin nodded bravely, holding her wand that was as useless as a twig in her hands. "Let's go in."

She kicked the door open. There were no draconians. There was no girl. The study was simple, with dark wallpaper and thick curtains hanging over the windows that shifted a little bit, cutting off most of the light sources save a few candles at random places around the room. Three bookshelves lined one wall, stuffed with magic books and grimoires and scrolls and pamphlets and several other things Erin didn't have names for. A desk was shoved into a corner, piled high with books and papers and a broken inkwell. It didn't look like it had been used in a long time.

In the center of the room was a small, round table covered with a simple red velvet tablecloth. An untouched crystal ball sat in the exact center, letting out an iridescent glow that faded in and out and changed colors softly as a smoke-like substance inside roiled about, sending shifting shadows across the surface of the crystal.

Erin stepped forward and stared into the crystal ball. She didn't see anything, and she had a feeling that she never would be able to see into the depths of this crystal ball. It was different than the ones that had been shattered a floor below; those were store-bought crystals that anyone could buy. This one had a much more intricate base carved out of... Erin looked closer. It looked like an ornately carved base of flawless topaz.

Something struck Erin suddenly. The curtains had been moving when she had entered the room, yet there was no breeze. She turned towards the curtains just as a figure leapt out, holding a blade that shone in the darkness like a deadly light.

* * *

_Whoo! That was fun to write. Sorry for not updating in a while, I recently started school and I've been bogged down with homework. I'll update SAS soon, promise!_

_Anyway, reviews. They were all the same, so I just want to say thanks for reading, you guys! By guys I mean Emily Silverflower, SpycyAlmond, yin-yang girl12, and Zombie Assassin 21._

_I'll try to upload more, I like this story and I like where it's going._


	4. Fireglobe Theatre

Natalie left the library to see the two Dragons- Jasmine and Destiny, she now knew from the gossip in the library, circling the Commons a few times before flying towards the Headmaster's Tower. Intrigued, she ran after them. Unfortunately, legs were no match for brooms, and by the time she got to the door, it was locked, presumably for privacy. Natalie muttered a curse under her breath; she wanted to see what was going on.

A few moments later, a boy with spiky orange hair opened the door and stepped out. Natalie glimpsed Jasmine and Destiny speaking with Ambrose before the door blocked her view. He ignored her and turned towards the mount dock, stopping short. "...for the love of- that stupid broom!" he hissed angrily.

"Temperamental broom?" Natalie asked.

The boy pounded his fist on the Tower stones. "It's the stupidest broom ever to grace mortalkind, and it won't even listen to a single command I give it!" He sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just so frustrating and I can't leave it alone for a second without it wandering off."

"It's fine, my family's broom hates my parents," Natalie said cheerfully. "My dad gets bucked off all the time. It likes to wander off too, so I got a compass to keep track of it."

"Oh..." the boy blinked. "Your family owns a broom? Not individual ones?"

Natalie's smile vanished and she only then spotted the crest on the boy's shirt. "Oh. You're a Dragon. That explains it." She spun on her heel.

"Wait!"

She ignored him. "Stupid Dragons, and their stupid sense of gold, and their stupid richness," she grumbled as she walked away.

"Wait, I never even got your name!" the boy was suddenly at her side. "Look, I'm sorry if I said anything offensive. I don't even know what I said. But you said you had a broom compass?"

She glanced at him. "Yeah. If you lock onto a broom's magic signature, you can track it practically anywhere. Why?" Light dawned. "Oh. Nah, find your broom yourself." She kept walking.

"Please?" The guy stepped in front of her.

Natalie folded her arms and a glint of mischievousness was suddenly visible in her eyes. The boy blinked nervously.

"Fine, I'll help you," she said sweetly. "Answer me one question, though."

"And that question is...?"

Natalie's eyes suddenly burned.

"Why were there draconians flying around an hour ago?"

* * *

Erin shrieked as the leaping girl tackled her to the ground. Somehow her arms flew out and grabbed the arm that held the knife. The girl retaliated by pressing down on Erin's throat. She gasped and kicked the floor.

"Paige!" Lily screamed. "Paige, don't she's a friend, I brought her-"

Lily's words evidently had no effect on the older girl. She leaned in close and hissed, "Were the draconians not enough? Did he really have to send a Rebel to finish me off?" Her fingers squeezed Erin's neck. "Why are you here?"

"Lily... sent... thought you... danger..." Erin managed to gasp out.

"Paige!" Lily cried.

Paige's violet gaze locked onto Erin's, refusing to loosen her grip. Erin saw darkness eating at her vision and her kicks grew weaker.

"You're going to kill her!" Lily yelled. She sounded like she was crying.

Suddenly the killer fingers released her throat. Erin gasped for air. The girl drew back into the shadows, knife glinting threateningly.

"Who are you?" she growled. "Why are you here?"

Erin sat up and rubbed her throat, wincing as she felt bruises flower on her skin. "I'm Erin," she said. "Lily took me here to see you, and we found the house trashed. We looked for you, and apparently we found you."

Now that her life wasn't threatened, Erin got a good look at Paige. The girl was pale with long, messy black hair. Her violet eyes were fierce. She wore a simple black-and-purple dress that would have been pretty if it wasn't stained with blood and torn from a battle. Her porcelain skin was scratched and bruised, blood standing out bright against it. The girl had clearly been in a battle just a short while ago and, judging from the stance she had crouched in, didn't trust Erin yet.

"I see," she muttered. "I apologize for my behavior, but my life was threatened a short while ago. I thought you were a Rebel sent in after the draconians to finish me off."

"What's a Rebel, Paige?" Lily asked. "Are you okay? Why were there draconians coming after you? Were you scared? Did you fight them off? Did you see the rest of your house? It's in shambles Paige, you're going to have to clean a lot and fix a lot of stuff."

Paige's lips twisted into a smile. Apparently she couldn't resist the younger girl's charm. "I did see the house," she said. "It's going to take a while to fix, but I can fix it." She looked back to Erin. "Both of you, come with me please. I will try to fix a snack in what's left of my kitchen." She led the two girls down the stairs, stepping carefully over the strewn glass in bare feet."

Lily said the Dragons recruited you," Erin said.

"Yes," Paige replied simply. "They had need of my unique magic and my... expertise."

"Why were there draconians in here, anyway?"

Erin stared at the back of Paige's head. She didn't say anything for a while. At last, she said, "Wait."

No matter what Erin asked after that, Paige fell silent.

"She gets like this," Lily whispered as they reached the living room. "Just wait till she's ready to talk."

Paige waved a hand almost carelessly. The glass on the sofa and table in the living room obediently leapt up and flew into the trash. A few stained blankets hovered down from upstairs and covered the ruined cushions. The raven-haired girl pointed to the couch. "Sit," she said as she walked into another room, presumably the kitchen. Lily and Erin uneasily sat.

"That magic power..." Erin stammered. "That's insane!"

Lily nodded. "Paige is super powerful. If she wanted to back there, she could have killed you without the knife."

"How is she so insanely strong when she's only fifteen?" Erin asked incredulously.

"She has this power that nobody else has, I think," Lily said, furrowing her brow. "At least, she and I never met anyone who had the same power as her."

"Doesn't she fall in one of the Seven?" Erin asked, meaning the seven types of magic a wizard could possibly be.

Instead of explaining what kind of ultra-powerful subclass Paige was, Lily shook her head. "Paige is a class all her own."

"Well what's she call it?"

"Mentalism."

* * *

"Man, that was a total ripoff!" Destiny fumed, downing her mug and slamming it on the table. "Hey, gimme another!"

"Destiny..." Jasmine pressed her palm to her face. "You're drinking too much."

"I don't care! Ambrose is pissing me off, holding info from us purposely!"

The bulldog bartender cautiously came over and filled Destiny's mug with Marleybone's finest root beer. The two were in the only bar in Marleybone, a favorite hangout for students studying abroad in this World.

However, they were the only two there. Destiny was furious. She and Jasmine had walked in on Kane and Ambrose in the middle of a serious discussion. They had looked surprised when they walked in. When Destiny had tried to find out what was going on, Ambrose had dismissed Kane and told them to stay in town, or at least be in town tomorrow, since they were both part of the new pair project. Then he had told them to leave without another word. Destiny pressed him for details, but he told them it didn't concern them.

"Doesn't concern us!?" Destiny growled. "If it has anything to do with Malistaire, it damn well concerns us!"

"Destiny, you're drinking too much," Jasmine said flatly, pulling out a small handful of gold pieces and placing them on the bar. "C'mon." She dragged her friend out into the main square.

It was dark, as always, in Marleybone. Jasmine didn't think she'd ever seen a day when the stars didn't twinkle in the sky. It was a nice place, but lately it seemed it had really gone to the dogs. Literally.

For some reason, the dogs were always the ones that were on the higher end of society. Jasmine liked them well enough, but they looked down on the cats and rats, who shared their city, as trash that had to be gotten rid of. Jasmine didn't think she agreed with that. The cats and the rats were just trying to scrape out a living, and hated the dogs for hogging up all the gold in the city.

Lately, Marleybone seemed to have gotten into even hotter waters. The racism between the dogs and cats was worse than it had ever been. Turf wars were popping up all over the place. Worse still, the cats' efforts to break into the prison and free their leader, Meowiarty, had redoubled for some reason. The entire Spiral was going nuts, but the nastiness really bared its fangs in Marleybone.

Jasmine of course was also annoyed by the whole thing. Kane was the same rank as they were, so of course she expected to be briefed on what was going on. The only explanation she could come up with was that Kane was given an undercover mission, which was plausible, but of course Kane wouldn't tell them if it was. She had already decided to work it out later with him.

_Now to get this hothead home,_ she thought. "Des, c'mon, let's get you back home," she said, ushering her friend towards the church where the Gate lay.

Destiny resisted. "Nooooo."

"By the gods, Des, you're drunk. You need to get home and sleep some of it off."

"I'm not goin' home."

"Yes you are."

"No'm not."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

Other wizards dressed in traditional Marleybone clothing stopped and watched as two girls who were clearly Dragons argued back and forth as one dragged the obviously inebriated other. Jasmine felt her cheeks burning with embarrassment, but glared at the other students until they hurried away.

_I remember that dress,_ she thought, eyeing one dress that had a large bustle sticking out of it. _I hated it._

Five minutes later, Jasmine wrestled Destiny's house Key from her friend's fingertips and unlocked the Gate. It opened into a part of the Spiral that was detached from the rest of the Worlds. The skies were dark and cloudy, the stone Jasmine stepped onto purple and old. Random chunks of flooring floated just beyond the reach of the main section. This was a piece of World that had broken off long ago and built upon, and now Destiny had the only key.

Personally, Jasmine thought it a bit dreary for her tastes (though Jasmine herself lived in a haunted house herself and had no right to talk of dreariness), but it suited Destiny quite well. She used to have a house from Mooshu, bright and airy with plenty of space, but she said this fortress was much better suited for her than that flimsy place. Jasmine knew better though, knowing that Kane had almost the exact same castle.

She wanted Destiny to upgrade to a property specifically built with Fire wizards in mind though. She'd been pestering Destiny over and over about it, but to no avail. Des was deadset on keeping this house, and Jasmine couldn't get Kane to talk to her about it. So with the dreary old spiderwebbed fortress she went.

Jasmine ignored the vast front entrance, opting instead to travel directly below the fortress where the prisoners had been kept long ago. Destiny had mapped out her rooms well, with her room being secluded and her alchemy lab in a room with a grated ceiling. She had certainly tried to make the place feel less dreary by decorating, and Jasmine had to admit her friend had done a decent job.

Nonetheless, Jasmine tucked a protesting Destiny in, saying she'd return later to check if Des was asleep or not, and flew back out into the open.

Instead of leaving through the World Gate, though, she directed her broom off to the left and shot directly into the Spiral itself. Within moments the clouds in the sky faded and she was faced with nothing but stars and pulsing trails of color, loosely making a spiral shape connecting several different Worlds.

Jasmine pulled out a map. She had a theory to test.

* * *

Justin stared up at the giant firecat statue. Who had made it? He didn't really know. Had they made it for a purpose? Was it actually a real firecat that was just trapped inside the metal? Would Drew and Tyler and Pen all be okay?

He sighed. He had run to Firecat Alley to get away from the fright he'd gotten down at the Pavilion. But he couldn't stop thinking about it! He didn't know if they were okay or if they were injured or even dead and he didn't want to think about it, he just did. It was getting annoying and he wanted it to stop.

"Justin?" He turned. There was that girl who had been with Erin earlier- what was her name? Natalie. She was clutching a thick leather-bound book that looked like it had come from a dusty shelf in the library. Her thick black hair had also acquired some sort of thin layer of dust, like she had been wherever she had for a long while.

"Yeah, that's me," he said, leaning back onto the firecat statue. "You're, uh..."

"Natalie," she confirmed, tucking a loose strand behind her ear. She didn't seem to notice her hair was dusty. "Erin's friend. You know, the girl who's life you saved?"

"I know who she is. Nobody doesn't know on campus anymore," Justin snorted.

"Yeah, well thanks for saving her life," Natalie replied.

"What're you doing here, anyway?" he asked.

She gave him a look before answering. "I'm a pyromancer. I live here, doofus. Why are YOU here?"

Justin was a bit startled by her sharp answer. "Erm... I needed to get out for a bit, is all."

"Why not hang on your own street?"

"..." Justin glanced up at the sky, memories of the Pavilion haunting his mind. "There was... a skirmish."

"A... skirmish?" Natalie looked amused.

"Point is, I don't wanna go back for a while. Some stuff's going down, and I'd rather not be stuck in the middle." Justin shrugged. "I can't go to Cyclops, Unicorn is blocked off, and the guards won't let me into Colossus, so I came here." He paused. "Never really been around the street, either."

"Well, I don't blame you," Natalie chuckled. "Firecat Alley is one of the nicer streets. We've got a really neat theatre, wanna see?"

Justin shrugged again. "I got nothing better to do."

Natalie grinned, her face lighting up. Justin didn't blame her. She probably wanted something to distract her from what had happened earlier almost as bad as he did.

She didn't see her friends being shot down in a sacred Pavilion, he thought grudgingly.

He followed her absently, glancing around at the fiery red sky, a kind of red you could only find on this street, like an eternal sunset. He looked over the obsidian firecat statues that adorned every sharp street corner, looking over the street with a majestic air that was hard to find in such a strange-looking creature. Personally, Justin preferred the krakens that lined the streets of Triton Avenue. Now those were guardians of a street. Nobody would mess with a fishbeast towering seven feet tall with lightning powers. But... a weird lion-looking thing that could spit flames? Meh.

"Watch out!" Suddenly Justin was being pulled to the side. He looked up to see a tiny humanoid nocking an arrow in his direction. Naturally, it being Firecat Alley, the arrow's tip was burning. Justin ducked as the pencil-sized arrow pierced the building behind him. Good thing it was stone.

"Sorry," Natalie muttered sheepishly. "The elves have been acting out of it lately. Headmaster Ambrose put a charm on the sidewalks. They can't walk on them."

The elves screamed in high-pitched squeaky voices and shook their fists at the two. Natalie winced, and Justin assumed they had said something nasty in their own language.

"Sorry about that. Anyway, look down there." Natalie pointed, and Justin turned.

It was then he realized they were standing towards the end of the street. About fifty yards away stood a large, circular building, protected by a dark wall. A large red curtain was draped between three Fire emblems, and the two small towers were decorated with banners depicting the sun among stars. The towers and building itself were capped with pointy red roofs. The top was decorated with a fiery border. The cherrywood doors, presenting themselves before the two, stood at least ten feet high.

"Nice theatre," Justin managed.

Natalie grinned proudly. "We've got lots of plays that go on here all the time, but right now it's probably empty. Wanna go inside?"

Justin shrugged. "I got nothin' better to do."

Natalie took one more glance around before leading Justin up the steps. "That's weird, Alicane isn't around today," she muttered.

"Alicane?"

"Alicane Swiftarrow," Natalie explained, pushing the doors. "He's sort of like the leader of the elves around here. Usually he's in the square with Private Quinn, but he wasn't there when I checked. I figured he'd be with the other elves, but you saw how they're acting."

The doors creaked open to reveal rows upon rows of seats, all leading down to a big, open stage. The stage was mostly round against a flat backdrop, with seats curving around it. The place was dim, but Justin was sure that he could see something onstage.

"Kane!" Natalie yelled out the doors. "Gods, you're slow without a broom!"

Justin twisted in confusion. After a few moments, a guy with spiky orange hair in some Dragons-looking clothes jogged up. "Sorry!" he apologized. "I stopped by Destiny's house, I left one of my Keys there this morning."

"I couldn't tell," Natalie shrugged. Justin glanced at Kane's Keyring. Sure enough, there were enough Keys that it would be hard to tell if one was missing or not.

"So, er, what's all this?" Kane asked, peering into the theatre. "I've been in here before, but not when it's closed. Why are we here?"

"I told you, I left my broom compass in here at last week's show," Natalie explained. "I met Justin, and he needed something to do, so I figured he could come along."

Kane met Natalie's eyes as if they shared a secret. Justin didn't know what was up, nor did he care very much. He just needed a distraction for a while.

"Man, it's dark in here," Kane muttered, snapping his fingers. One by one, the torches flared to life. Justin squinted as a shape came into view on the stage. It was small enough to be an elf, but he was pretty sure elves didn't dabble in dark magic.

Natalie gasped. "Alicane!"

The torches blew out and the doors swung shut.

Kane cursed. "What's going on here!?"

"That's Alicane on stage," Natalie muttered. "What's going on- LOOK OUT!"

Justin ducked as a fireball came hurtling towards him. It dissipated as it struck the doors. Of course a stage on Firecat Alley would be enchanted with fire protection.

"Who dares enter my lair?" a squeaky voice demanded. It definitely sounded like an elf, but Justin was also very sure that elf voices didn't drip with malice.

"Alicane? Is that you?" Natalie asked. A fire arrow hurtled towards her and she dodged it, yelping.

"I don't think whoever's down there is friendly," Kane muttered, drawing his sword.

"Don't hurt him!" Natalie cried. "He's innocent, just possessed I think!"

Kane muttered a swear under his breath and pulled on the doors. Then he pushed on them. Finally he gave them a good kick. "Locked in," he said grimly.

"Looks like we don't have another choice," Justin said, drawing his wand. It gleamed in the dim light. It was brand new, bought for the school year because his parents didn't trust the regulation wands the school supplied, but that didn't mean he knew how to use it. Things weren't looking good.

Another fireball set some of the seats on fire.

"I thought this place was fireproof!" Natalie yelped.

"Apparently not so." Justin took a breath and charged in.

* * *

_Whoo! This took pretty long too. I've been running into a bit of complication lately but I had some spare time so I started working on editing the story and I'm posting this chapter. There's another chapter completed that should hopefully go up in the next couple days, and then Chapter Six which is when we finally finish the day and get to learn about how the world works in this story! Yay!_

_As a side note, yes, I know I haven't posted anything in SAS at all. I'm going to transfer the story onto a different device so I can work on it more._

_So... what do you guys think of the story? My writing style? Are there too many characters? Do you think the plot is a bit jumpy? Characters too one-dimensional? Let me know!_

_Other side note: MEME'S MASK._


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